A lot of landlords feel genuinely guilty about raising rent on a tenant they like. I understand the feeling. The tenant pays on time, takes care of the place, and asking for more money feels like punishing good behavior.
I want to offer a different way to see it, because I think the guilt is based on an incomplete picture of what’s actually happening.
When you skip an allowed rent increase, you’re not declining to charge something that doesn’t exist yet. You’re choosing to personally subsidize your tenant’s housing cost, out of your own equity, without ever framing it to yourself as a gift. It is one. You’re just giving it silently, and giving it every single month, for as long as the gap persists.
Say market rent on your property has moved from $2,700 to $2,850 over the past year, and you decide not to raise it because the tenant is good and you don’t want to deal with the conversation. That’s $150 a month, $1,800 a year, that you are personally paying so your tenant doesn’t have to. Do that for three years in a row and you’ve quietly gifted over five thousand dollars, while your mortgage, taxes, and insurance kept rising on schedule regardless of what you charged.
Nobody would write a check for $5,000 to a tenant they like without thinking hard about it first. But landlords do the equivalent every single year by simply not adjusting the number, because the cost is invisible. It never shows up as a withdrawal. It just shows up as money you never received.
I’m not suggesting you max out the legal increase every year regardless of circumstance, or treat a good tenant like a line item to optimize without any humanity involved. Oregon caps annual increases at 7% plus CPI for good reason, and a tenant who’s been reliable for years deserves to be treated like a relationship, not a spreadsheet.
What I am suggesting is that the decision to skip an increase should be a decision, made consciously, with the actual dollar amount in view. Right now, most landlords make this choice by default, by simply not thinking about it, and defaults in this case are expensive.
You can give a tenant a modest, predictable increase with notice, professionally communicated, and still be a landlord people genuinely like renting from. Tenants generally don’t resent fair, expected increases delivered respectfully. They resent surprises, and they resent feeling like the relationship only exists when it’s convenient for the landlord.
The kindest thing you can do isn’t refusing to raise rent. It’s being honest with yourself about what skipping the increase actually costs, and making the choice on purpose instead of by accident.
If you’d rather have someone else handle this conversation and the math behind it, that’s a normal part of what professional management takes off your plate.
Get a free rent estimate and see where your current rent sits against the market at rentalpropertymanagementbend.com or call (541) 550-3173.
About the Author
Jeff Olson is the owner of Rental Property Management Bend (License #201254958), a licensed Oregon property management company located at 61023 Chamomile Pl, Bend OR 97702. He has managed Bend, Redmond, and Sunriver rental properties since 2017.
Jeff placed a qualified tenant in 11 days and our property has been issue-free for 14 months.
Jeff always amazes me with his business insight and unique approaches to solving problems. When you really get to connect with him, you'll discover a fantastic person who has an ease in building interpersonal relations with others.
I’ve had the privilege of working with Jeff on a number of projects over the years. His ability to identify market opportunities and create solutions has always impressed me. He is humble and full of integrity.
